Archive for the ‘Industry News’ Category

Ok now I know that most SEO’s know and have been saying this for a long time, but now a Google employee  John Mu has posted the following content

Read the thread here

BUT. DESPITE the clear instruction above by John, only a few comments down, someone posts

I’ve found that Google typically does a major scan of the web every 28-30 days (once a month) and updates PR every 3-4 months I’m just waiting for the next update so they can pick up my new site.

We have a saying in Wales that goes ” you can’t educate Pork, you can only cure it”   Some people just don’t get it do they?

Well we had Google instant as I reported, and now it apperas that google are testing a raft of new search interfaces, one of which is kinda like an enhanced Hybrid  of Bing preview feature, and the Ask.com binoculars but with pictures and snippets. :)

The image left was screenshot by Benjamin Rubin so thanks to him for taking the time to do that.

As you can see, it does work to allow the visitor to evaluate a site before committing to actually visiting, but will people use it?

Personally I think it is good but it certainly has a shift now with regard design and display. google are rending pages, what are they using for the thumbnail screenshots? If your site doesn’t render in their screenshot thumbnail, then it could well cost you clicks.

DESIGN  is so important for this feature to allow you to benefit. A poorly laid out site could well end up seeing dramatic drops in traffic as people ‘pre-approve’ the sites they will visit

 Another interesting feature is the snippet. Snippets are something I have been spending a lot of time on of late, as the snippet you have displayed can be the difference between click and no click.

Snippets pull the visitor in during the all important attention interest, desire, action phases of buying your site as the site to click on. This new feature will make snippets way more important than ever, as multi snippets are also displayed on occasion.

One question here though is that of the Opera browser once again being pushed out. Just as google have pretty much pushed Opera out of instant, analytics and AdWords especially AdWords, it looks as if this feature will not work in the opera browser, at least in beta anyhow.

Another question is that of connection speeds, I have noticed that while out in my local Starbucks, google turned off instant (no not the coffee) as the connection was too slow.  Is Google getting ahead of itself, because my search interface while in Starbucks, hung for an age before instant was turned off, and THAT was not a good user experience.

Following on from my  previous post about Google instant, we now have news about Google suggest and the case that was brought against them with regard defamatory suggestions.

The case revolves around an individual who had been convicted on appeal of corruption of a minor, however the guy found that google was suggesting ‘plaintiff name rapist’ and ‘plaintiffs name satanist’ as suggestions.

The guy managed somehow to get some solicitor to act for him, and won his case. So where does this leave Google (who have said they will appeal)? Well if they lose their appeal it could throw a total spanner in the works of their predictive search, because that is based on the very same technology.  Then again, if they are displaying web pages rather than term suggestions would the court find against them?

One thing is certain here, well two things really.

1. The world of search is moving faster than the laws of the land

2. People will sue (and win) for anything.

Google Convicted of Defamation Original ruling (French)

So it is here at last (for some of us at least)! What am I talking about? Google instant of course.

For some time now, Google has been making search term suggestions, but in a massive step but only to those using certain browsers and in certain geographical locations, namely “US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia who use the following browsers: Chrome v5/6, FireFox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and Internet Explorer v8″ but it is also available elsewhere if users are signed into a Google account.

So what does google instant look like?

Well it looks a bit like that image to the left, well in fact it is exactly like that. Although I was using FireFox, I had to be signed into my google account to get instant results.

Many people have reported that this will cause difficulty to SEO’s but personally I don’t see how it can, because as I have stated many times, the King Queen & Holy Grail of internet marketing, and, all of these ‘suggestions’ by google should be on the radar of a decent SEO.

Where I DO see a potential issue though is with PPC, and I will explain my thinking here.

In the image left you can see a couple of google ads being displayed. I ran the same for SEO and there were a load, and as I continued to type, ads flashed up and went, now my concern here is will these ad showings be classed as impressions by Google? because if they are, then that has serious repercussions on the campaign conversion rate of display to click through, which in turn impacts on the cost and performance of the advert. Read the rest of this entry »

It appears that something is up with Google and their cache reporting.  A lot of pages seem to have  cache dates of August 12 or there abouts, sites that were previously cached regularly are reporting that they have not been cached.

So the questions now are :-

Is it the cache date reporting that is wrong or

Is it that Google has suddenly ramped down their caching? 

Are they ‘full’ again as they were a couple of years back?

Is something BIG, HUGE, MONUMENTAL, about to happen, are we in for another update of ‘Florida’ proportions?

Much has been said of late at the apparent worsening of web spam handling within the Google index. Could we be standing on the precipice blissfully unaware

Yep, according to Techcrunch  Google is to stop all development on Google wave! Well this  Old Welsh Guy has to say that maybe the reason for the almost total rejection by all but devout googlites or geeks was that we simply didn’t like the way it suddenly appeared in our private parts (ooer missus) without warning nor proper explanation.

Many people are starting not to trust Google as much as previously, little things like using toolbar feedback for URL discovery, or the automatic toolbar update changing privacy settings to personalised search, and feedback to google with information without asking did it for me.

Now all cookies from Google are blocked on my main browser, the Google toolbar has been wiped off the face of the earth, and I make sure there is nothing to sign me into Google at all. Which is a shame, as I really liked the simplicity of Chrome, now I don’t trust Google as far as I can throw them, and at 350 pound per share I struggle to lift them let alone throw them

So Wave has gone, which again is a shame, but whoever thought that launching a product that appears in someones face when they log into web mail REALLY should have read Dale Carnegie’s book on How to Win Friends and Influence People. Although they certainly influenced people to immediately hit the ‘NO THANKS’ option!

Not sure if anyone else has come across this, but if a site has the same page title sitewaide, it appears that in some cases, google is creating their own titles based on page content.

Impossible to say if this is the title being used for ranking, or if it is just for display, (as in when it uses the ODP (DMOZ) titles).

Interesting find though

In what can only be described as bizarre, Google appear to be about to offer SEO services to businesses.  Three years ago almost to the day, Google bought double click, and it was reported then that they had by default become an SEO company. Google rapidly sold off the arm, and claimed once again to be whiter than white.

Now though it appears that by May, Google will be offering SEO services? HOW?

The FIA ruled that search results must be clearly marked as paid, if money has changed hands to place a site there.  This is why the paid status is clearly defined, as consumers have a right to know what is an advert and what has editorial integrity!  By offering this service, Google have crossed over, they are going to ‘help’ a site get better rankings in an algorithm that only THEY know with absolute confidence. so in fact. we have come full circle and have gone back to where yahoo and Alta-Vista were all those years ago with PFP (Pay For Position) .

What next I wonder? Will Google come up with a fantastic ‘new’ ideal called PFI Pay For Inclusion. Seems to me that Google are on the slippery slope, and are sliding ever further into the ‘do not trust’ pond!

What next? The Google political Party

Don’t do evil?  Maybe we should send them postcards with this on to remind them of their motto.

.

It seems that Google have become victims of their own success of late, in that they feel they need to do things because they can!

When Google started, it had a simple interface, you typed what you wanted, and you got a nice simple set of results. We then had the google directory, and then came Froogle, image search and many other ‘alternative’ methods of searching (which is fine).

Of late though the Search Results Page of Google looks like something a party goer threw up after a drinking session of the ‘most colourful cocktails’ section of the menu at the office party!

IT IS A MESSS, and this mess just got messier. With (what I would refer to as) their new Consolidated Realtime Additional Presentation Fomat (C.R.A.P. for short)

At the top we have  PGA tour, below that we have news result, then below that we have a bunch of what can only be described as CRAP!

LMAO that Gatorade dropped tiger woods

“RT XXXXX Gatorade first sponsor to drop tiger woods”

“You know what? I also had an affair with tiger woods, THERE”

There is a scroll down box that is filled with ‘real time’ search results. You know what? If I wanted to read pathetic childish crap, then i would subscribe to pathetic childish Twitter accounts, I really don’t need to get it shoved at me from Google.

What Google HAVE managed to achieve in a single stroke is to attract MORE spammers to the twitter service that is already full to the brim of spammers!

Imagine what would happen if the ‘hot topic’ was a product, we would get mountains of results, tweets, news, more news, shopping feeds etc and what we REALLY want is below the fold.

Sorry Google but this for me is a step too far. I know it is panto season, and I know that you were going to perform Mother Goose, but I understand that it had to be cancelled as someone in product development killed the Goose that was laying the golden eggs!

Anyone who has been around the web for a while will have seen the rise in Web2.0 style sites with user generated content. This concept is a superb arrangement for all parties as the site owner gets free content, and the writer gets a platform to air their views. Everything in the garden is rosy, until the big old spammer arrives with his dirty tricks.

If it wasn’t for Akismet and my manual editing of comments here on this blog, many of my readers would have bigger appendages ‘down below’ shiny new watches(shiny for a while), a cupboard full of triangular blue pills, and would be corresponding with a 5’4 blonde beauty from Russia who is really 44 years of age and called Malcolm and living in Hull. Oh and they would also be planning on moving to Russia to live with Malcolm (AKA the blonde beauty) as soon as they get their money from the Nigerian dead oil minister deal and their Internet Lottery winnings (best £5000 they ever spent).

OK back to the real world. Google have just published a beginners post dealing with spam, but as ever there are a couple of Easter eggs in the content. Read the rest of this entry »